Dubbed the “Halcrow Project,” it would employ a new evaluation approach called Contribution Tracing to conduct a pilot of the Ghana’s Strengthening Accountability Mechanisms (GSAM) project.     

At a press briefing held in Accra on Tuesday, Mr Mohammed Nurudeen Salifu, the Communication Specialist for the Ghana’s Strengthening Accountability Mechanisms Project (GSAM), said the move formed part of a broader learning initiative implemented globally by the organisation with support from CARE UK Halcrow Investment Fund.

The organisation would partner Pamoja Evaluation Services from the United Kingdom to employ a new evaluation approach, known as Contribution Tracing, to conduct a pilot evaluation of the GSAM project.

Mr Gavin Stedman-Bryce, the Managing Director of Pamoja Evaluation Services, expressed confidence in the learning initiative, saying it would help ensure the effectiveness of policy formulation and implementation. 

He said donors are becoming more demanding and this made it necessary for organisations to stay accountable in the implementation of projects that received donor support.   “This initiative is very effective for evaluation as the method allows you to use the result in a very targeted way. You are able to collect data randomly and get the needed results for the evaluation,” he said adding that it would ensure the application of logic in data collection.    

At the end of the pilot evaluation, CARE and its development partners in Ghana would be able to establish clearly whether promoting citizen monitoring of local government infrastructural projects, as being done under the GSAM project, can lead to improved planning and implementation of these projects.

It would also ascertain as to whether such a move could make Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) more responsive and accountable to citizens. The GSAM is a five-year initiative funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by CARE International, IBIS and Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) with support from the Ghana Audit Service (GAS) as well as other selected civil society organisations.       

The project has so far made a positive impact on 50 districts in the areas of accountability and probity in the implementation of economic and social infrastructural development with more than fifty per cent of the monitored projects completed timely and efficiently.

Mr Clement Tandoh, the Chief of Party of the GSAM, said the project is aimed at strengthening citizens’ monitoring of capital projects in at least 100 districts in the country.    The project seeks to monitor and improve local government transparency, accountability and performance at various levels in the execution of capital projects in the Annual Action Plans of the districts and ensure that citizens benefit from such projects.        

“The project has supported more than 100,000 in 100 districts to monitor infrastructural projects being implemented by their assemblies and to engage with assemblies through community and district town hall meetings to demand for accountability” he said.